Pick seven players, from any era, to play against the following seven member team: 1) Kasparov, 2) Fischer, 3) Capablanca, 4) Alekhine, 5) Rubinstein, 6) Botvinnik and 7) Korchnoi, at peak form, would be formidable. Perhaps some of these players wouldn't make your list of top seven players, but I wouldn't hesitate to wager on this team as I think nearly everyone would pick at least four of the above players (not necessarily the same four) to be on their list of the "best team" had they not already been drafted for my team.

Karpov, Morphy, Kramnik, Anand, Reshevsky, Tal, and Petrosian.

Kramnik

Karpov

Anand

Tal

Lasker

Topalov

Steinitz

1) Kasparov, 2) Fischer, 3) Capablanca, 4) Alekhine, 5) Rubinstein, 6) Botvinnik and 7) Korchnoi

1. Vladimir Kramnik

2. Mikhail Tal

3. Paul Keres

4. Magnus Carlsen

5. Emanuel Lasker

6. Tigran Petrosian

7. Anatoly Karpov

Ok. Let's say you substitute Karpov for Rubinstein and Anand for Korchnoi, then you have 1) Kasparov; 2) Fischer; 3) Capablanca; 4) Alekhine; 5) Botvinikk; 6) Karpov and; 7) Anand. Could any 7 man team have a 50-50 chance of standing up to them?

spassky against karpov

topalov against anand (ahah)

board  1: Kasparov vs Kramnik    Advantage Kasparov

board 2: Fischer vs Tal               Advantage Fischer

board 3: Capablanca vs Keres      Advantage Decisive Capa

board 4: Alekhine vs Carlsen        Advantage Decisive Alekhine (for now)

board 5: Botnivikk vs  Lasker       Advantage Decisive Botnivikk

board 6: Karpov vs Spassky          Advantage Decisive Karpov

board 7: Anand vs Topalov           Advantage Anand

in regards to board 3: keres has a plus score against capa, one of the few players in history to have that.

the answer is, of course, no.  but the board i suggested might be best.  any suggestions?

Re: Capa vs Keres. My research, hastily done,I admit, shows that you are correct. Keres had a score of +1-0-4. However, the games were played in1 1937-39, past Capa's prime. Imust admit that I don't know enough about Carlsen's game orTopolov's for that matter. I shall have to remedy that to bring myself squarely into the 21st century. But,I'd think Morphy would earn a place on your team, if not on mine!

Let's put Morphy against Fischer, shall we?  Fischer said that, given time to study modern theory, he'd be with the best.  But if we're just saying Morphy at his peak, Fischer would dominate that too.

that would be one ofthe all time great fantasy matches..Fischer vs Morphy it is!